Fall of the Bat King
by Shydow
Summary: -AU of Mario and Luigi Dream Team, set in Dream's Deep- The fight was intense, but in the end, they pushed him too far.


**A/N: So I watched a certain video involving a fight scene and I thought, "Hey, if I fixed this a bit she could be Mario, she could be Luigi, and he could be Antasma!" It took awhile to work out all the details, but meh. This, like most of my other stories, is more of an alternate series of events. R&R If you want I guess.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mario. If I owned Mario Dimentio would be in his own game.**

Mario shuddered against the cold atmosphere, Dreamy Luigi struggling close behind. As soon as they had entered the dark area, the dream representation of Luigi had seemed to fade out of existence, but this was proven wrong when he had appeared about three-to-five minutes later. Prince Dreambert had stated he didn't want to see the mighty Bat King again, and had stayed behind. Of course, Mario wasn't worrying about him.

The main things that Mario was worrying about were only two things in general; one was how Dreamy Luigi has already became so tired in such a short amount of time, and two was the ominous messages floating around Dream's Deep.

"_Bro! Take me along!"_

"_I'm my bro's bro!"  
"I'm strong too!"_

"_I fight ghosts!"  
_Though some of these words that happened to be floating around were comforting to Mario, others made him worry about current events and Luigi's well-being more than others. There was one particular thought that kept replaying throughout the vast plane of Luigi's thoughts that bothered him, though.

"_I remember him. I remember them. Don't sleep. Don't sleep or they'll find you"_

Mario didn't know what it meant, not at all, and this is what unnerved him so about it. The thought was always distinguished from the others by the tone in which you'd hear it. It was full of both fear and contempt, paranoia and envy, and sometimes it would come with an odd-sounding laugh in between the words that always made the red hero shiver. Speaking of which, the thought had just made itself heard again, laugh included.

"Bro? Are...are you okay?" Dreamy Luigi panted, stopping to catch his breath.

"Oh, um, sure Luigi. I'm fine," He snapped out of his self-induced day-mare and reassured his brother that he was okay. "Are you okay? You look as pale as a ghost!"  
"G-Ghost? W-w-w-where?" Dreamy Luigi trembled, suddenly alert. "Oh, sorry. I just meant to say that it's not like I've never had to come in here and handle a few things on my own. Just...I don't usually last long in this area. Usually I tend to just disappear before I get to this point."

"Are you sure you're ready to fight?"  
"Y-Yeah, I'm just fine."

"Just making sure," With that, the brothers entered what appeared to be the main 'chamber' of Dream's Deep; where a certain purple bat king waited for them.

"SKREEEK! I'm hoping you don't expect me to go easy on you, plumbers of red and green, not this time!"

_'It's just Antasma...'_ Mario thought. '_Luigi and I can take him._'

"Bro?" Mario jerked his head around to a pale Dreamy Luigi.

"What? Do you need to leave? I can take hi-"  
"No. It's not that. I want to fight by myself for once." He said firmly.

"...If you promise not to leave me here fighting by myself, I'm alright with it, bro," The red hero of light nodded and directed his gaze back to Antasma.

"SKREEE! Are you two finally ready to fight me? You vere taking forever over there, fools."

"Antasma, no longer will you plague the nightmares of innocent civilians, nor will you torture a simple princess whilst she is in your captivity. We will destroy you." Dreamy Luigi said weakly, holding his hammer up in a defensive manner.

"You said it, lil' bro! Let's teach him a lesson he'll never forget!" And with that, Mario and his brother charged at the enemy, furiously delivering blows that Antasma just seemed to counter.

"Face it, veaklings, you vill never defeat me! SKREEEKEEK!" Mario's strength was already diminishing, and they only had two mushrooms and a Fire Flower left with them.

Dreamy Luigi, however, was doing nearly worse.

He was struggling to counted the fierce attacks the Bat King kept throwing at him, spawning multiple weapons (that would usually disappear rather quickly) with his dream abilities. Mario signaled to his brother, and the latter nodded back as they jumped to opposite sides of Antasma.

The brothers made a shrill battle cry as they charged towards the Bat King, Mario with Fire Flower at the ready, Dreamy Luigi with his flickering bright green sword. As they were about to make contact, the green clad plumber's sword flickered into the absolution, and Antasma used dark purple stone to trap them against the walls of the room with seemingly no escape.

Key word: seemingly.

Mario blasted through the restraints with a large fireball in hand, charging at the purple villain while Dreamy Luigi quickly faded away.

"ANTASMAAAAAA!"

His fist hit the ground, as the king had already vanished from sight.

"H-hey! Where are you?!" The red hero trembled slightly, trying to say strong even though he was covered in brutal injuries. The fog covered the figure behind him, until a laugh revealed it's presence. Mario snapped his head around, the rest of his body following afterwards as he used his flame-covered fist to rival Antasma's own hand. They were equally matched until the villain's hand slipped, allowing the hero's the plunge right through his chest. A shadowy mist leaked out of the wound.

Antasma laughed, as this didn't really hurt him at all.

"W-What?! You're supposed to be dead by now!" Mario panicked as the king continued on with his maniacal outburst.

Mario pulled his hand out and Antasma knocked him back

"I vill not be beaten in my own vealm, SKREEK! You seem to have forgotten who's domain you're in." The two main combatants ran back up to eachother and resumed exchanging powerful blows.

"It seems...skreeek...even the hero lacks true purity!" Antasma grunted. "I can taste your wrath...it is delectable!"

"_WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!_" Mario screeched, launching the Bat King straight into the wall with one last blast of fire.

-page break-

Dreamy Luigi reappeared inside the stone, cracking it slowly but surely with various weapons until it broke. Fog covered almost every crevice of the battleground, and he had to squint closely to see a purple light in the distance.

The fog then cleared.

Mario was unconscious on the ground, a purple aura radiating his head as Antasma prepared to strike the sleeping man with his crystal-covered fist.

-page break-

Mario glanced around, where was he? Had he ever been in some random hallway? No, it wasn't any place he remembered, but he did remember the thin figure standing near the window at the end of the hall. It was too dark to make out any details, as it was apparently nighttime.

"Bro! You're okay! I was so worried for yo-"

Luigi turned around, revealing tiny black dots where his pupils used to be on top of a glowing white surround.  
"No..." Mario whispered, stepping back. "Bro, it doesn't have to be like this!"

'Luigi' raised a hand up into the air, and the ever-hungry Void came into view, rising and growing faster than ever before.

"NOOOOOO!"

-page break-

A sharp stab from behind interrupted Antasma's plans.

Dreamy Luigi panted, his arm outstretched from where he had thrown the sword into who had almost been his brother's killer. Antasma looked behind him at the pale, grimacing figure as his wound healed. They stood still for a minute, just looking at eachother, then the fight began. Dreamy Luigi created swords, battle axes, machetes and everything else for the sake of killing Antasma. The Bat King simply blasted magic at each and every weapon and watched them explode.

After a bit of that, Dreamy Luigi spawned himself a sword (it kind of looked like Excalibur) and ran towards Antasma's gem-riddled arm. The villain swung the weakened hero over his head with relative ease, and Dreamy Luigi laid there, on the ground, paralyzed by pain and fear. The king created a prison of crystal around the green plumber with a small hole in it in which Antasma could see the look on his face.

"P-Please...release me..." Dreamy Luigi grunted, pain searing through him like a rocket.

Antasma chuckled "Maybe I vill, SCREEK, maybe I von't." Slowly walking up to the peephole in the gem prison, the menacing figure put his eye through it, staring at Dreamy Luigi.  
"The only reason I'm letting you live is dude to my...screek..._curiosity_. Your brother...fears you? Vith you being as veak as you are, I don't see how he could do so."  
"He doesn't fear me."

"Ah, so you're either unaware or just mildly stupid, SCREE."

"I am..." He winced. "I am neither." Antasma turned around from the cell, disgusted by Dreamy Luigi in general.

"He think he understands the true visage behind the side of good and evil, SKREEEEEEEEK..." He mused.

"Don't act like you do, either."

"Oh, I understand perfectly, SKREEKEK! Think about it, you and me, partners to bring justice to the hate-blinded world through vengeance and deceit!" Dreamy Luigi sighed; this was always the routine. The villain would try to get the hero in which they presumed weak and convertible onto their side of the chessboard.

"You just lie to get your way, lie for help from people who would never respect you in the first place." The green man winced as he lifted himself off of the ground. "You lie for the purpose of hate and fear, things that you think would tempt me." He stood shakily, eyes narrowed. "Besides, I think I'd rather give my own life then work as an underling to somebody like you."

"Oh, bravo, SKREEEEE! You're playing the 'better man' in the situation, but still, I think I am convincing you. Think about it, all the fame and respect you truly deserve for just one low price of joining me."

"...That's what they all say."

"Skreekeeek? Vhat_ are _you talking about?"  
"You think this hasn't happened before? The bad guy tries to get who they think is the weaker hero onto their side in hopes they'll go against the friends and possible family they've had. It doesn't work on me, Antasma." Dreamy Luigi paused as swords appeared all around him. "You are nothing but a poor fool."

All at once, the crystal prison exploded outwards, Antasma narrowly dodged the flying rocks as Luigi charged forward with a sword. Purple wisps of nightmare surrounded Luigi as he jumped into the air-

-and landed on the ground.

He twitched as the purple energy surrounded his broken form, the sword disappearing from existence. A few words flashed through Dreamy Luigi's mind before he fell unconscious, spoken by a blend of demonic voices whispering into his being.

"_wE FounD yOu."_

-page break-

Antasma turned away from the green man. "Shame, SKREEEK."

As Antasma walked away, though, he was greeted with a suprise.

"eh...heheh...eh...heh heh...heh..." A broken chuckle went through the air, the same kind of laugh that accompanied the disturbing thought Mario would hear. Antasma turned around to see Dreamy Luigi standing up, scowling, eyes wide, and with his pupils slowly losing their color.

"You say you know the true difference between good and evil? Do you plan to misuse the powers you were gifted with?" he growled. "Powers made from the position I was _born_ into?" Antasma stepped back, scared.

"Where do you think all the shadows go whenever they need to hide from people like you? Just who do you think stands with them? What you posses is a mere morsel of their true powers. The same darkness I stand against, never giving into, each and every time!" Dreamy Luigi's voice boomed, a demonic ring stinging the echo.

"S-STAY AWAY! SKREEEEEEEEEE!" Antasma fired more dark energy at him, but the man in green simply held out his hand and flicked it away as if it were nothing. "You're nothing compared to them, and in turn _you're nothing compared to me._"

"You claim to know true fear, don't you?" A green sword, occasionally flashing from green to black in some areas, reappeared in Dreamy Luigi's hand. His form itself seemed to be 'glitching', sections of his body sometimes flashing another color or shifting away from his body altogether before reappearing where it came from. Dreamy Luigi suddenly disappeared and appeared right in front of Antasma, forcing him against a wall with a sword on his neck.

"_THEN I WILL SHOW YOU PURE TERROR!"_

He glitched now more than ever, his clothes now glitching in bright colors that hurt Antasma's eyes to even fathom.

"Vhat...are you...scree?" The royal rasped as the blade pressed harder against his throat.

The glitching stopped, black colors stayed. A mask faded onto his face and his pupils vanished. A large grin outlined his features. Mr. L stood proud, and insane.

"I...We...are a nightmare."

He drew back the sword-

_schlink_

_-_and slit Antasma's throat, the wound deep and leaking dark purple blood. He screamed silently and thrashed around until he finally stopped moving altogether. What used to be Dreamy Luigi glanced at Mario, who was now mumbling in his sleep. Rolling his eyes, he 'flashstepped' over to Mario and picked him up, hauling him out of the area as his clothes returned slowly to their normal hue, along with his eyes.

"Next time, Mr. Jumpsallthetime, don't play with fire." He said, before fading back to (what would be considered) normal.

-page break-

"Wow, bro, you beat him all by yourself?!" Mario, Dreambert, and Starlow all stared in awe in the real world.  
"Y-yeah, not much of a big deal." Luigi scratched the back of his head nervously. "Let's just say Antasma won't be coming back ever again."

**A/N: Daaaaaang...this has to be the longest chapter/oneshot I've ever wrote o-O. And for those who haven't seen the video this was based on, it's Fall of the Crystal Empire. And with that, R&R, Shydow out!**


End file.
